The present disclosure relates generally to tools for program development, and more particularly to systems and methods for tracing distributed systems.
Tracing can be one of the most important tools for program development and debugging. Typically, a debugger allows for execution of an application to be observed, recorded and used to identify particular problems with the application. The problem with typical methods and programs for debugging is that traditional debuggers are meant to deal with one process only. As such, even multiple threads of control within a single process can be difficult to trace. While conventional tracing methods and debuggers exist, these methods and programs are not suited for tracing distributed applications. Architecturally, distributed applications can be built like middleware and as a distributed system where requests for work are routed through a system of central queues with a number of dispatcher and worker units at the edges of an application. Cross-process, cross-platform, and cross-machine tracing are difficult and still under-developed. What is desired is a system and method for providing distributed tracing and to provide for debugging of applications.
Conventional systems for debugging can allow for snooping on messages in a distributed system. However, these methods treat what goes across the distributed application as an isolated message. What is desired is further integration between tracing and process debugging.